"its very exciting to be apart of a growth
trend especially here in Rochester," says David Bond, director of
Sponsored Research Services.

That growth is being fueled by the
technology designed by RIT students and faculty. As a result, the
university is seeing a historic rise in funding.

"A lot of this
research funding buys equipment and sophisticated supplies that are
needed for device development," says Bond.

RIT has received
almost $37 million from the federal government this year. Another $15
million came from defense contractors and agencies. Add that to
seven million from other sources and RIT has received more than $58
million in sponsored funding this year. That's a twenty percent bump
from a year ago.

"The idea was to be able to develop technology
for many different fields for application that not only in space but
also to be able to look inside the human body," says RIT Professor Don
Figer.

One of the departments that's receiving a large chunk of
funding is RIT's Center for Imaging Science.

"One million the
first year, $2.5 million the second year more, like $4 million this year
and so its increasing at a pretty rapid pace," says
Figer.

They're designing detectors that will be used in space to
take pictures of stars. Those detectors could one day be used inside
digital cameras.

"So if you could have a perfect detector,
one that could never make a picture that was fuzzy or had grain if you
could have that perfect detector thats what we want to deliver," says
Figer.

RIT credits the rise in funding to its faculty and the
partnerships it has built with outside companies. But for RIT, this isnt
where the bucks stops.

"Now its a matter of being very aggressive
and entrepreneurial and winning new research that can enable more
educational opportunities for our graduates," says Figer.

Too much focus on health care reform. There
are more issues to deal with. Too little focus on health care reform. This
needs to be taken care of. Just the right amount of focus on health care
reform. I'm
not sure